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Gaia
8th October 2015, 22:57
A little bit of history :

In Canada Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. Unlike the American tradition of remembering Pilgrims and settling in the New World, Canadians give thanks for a successful harvest. The harvest season falls earlier in Canada compared to the United States due to the simple fact that Canada is further north.

The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an English explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. He did not succeed but he did establish a settlement in Northern America. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him Frobisher Bay.

At the same time, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed 'The Order of Good Cheer' and gladly shared their food with their Indian neighbours.

After the Seven Year's War ended in 1763, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving.

During the American Revolution, Americans who remained loyal to England moved to Canada where they brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada. There are many similarities between the two Thanksgivings such as the cornucopia and the pumpkin pie.

Eventually in 1879, Parliament declared November 6th a day of Thanksgiving and a national holiday. Over the years many dates were used for Thanksgiving, the most popular was the 3rd Monday in October. After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11th occurred. Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day.

Finally, on January 31st, 1957, Parliament proclaimed...

"A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed ... to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October.

Hope you all had an awesome long weekend!

Times to gathering with family with moose stew and Oktoberfest party with friends :) :beer:


Gaia

Meggings
8th October 2015, 23:31
Gaia, I am moved to read the history of thanksgiving that you post above. Here we find we have dollars to buy for this thanksgiving a small HAM. I will make scalloped potatoes, and I have asked for corn. (ham, creamy potatoes, corn - what can go together better than this?)

Beforehand I will make pie crusts (for I make good ones) and will let daughter-in-law fill them as she wishes. It will be a GRAND DAY of food to celebrate all the happy family gatherings of previous years. I look forward to it immensely.

31492

Gaia
8th October 2015, 23:47
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it has not been commercialized... I cherish as it brings the family together around our table and we do express our thanks before we share in the bounty of the harvest. Some may find this a little hokey, but this is how I have raised my children, and the guests around the table are usually too hungry to complain about my moose stew and pumpkins pie. Hope you have great times and lot of love Meggings! Big hug!

Nenuphar
9th October 2015, 01:43
What a lovely post. Thank you, Gaia! Warm wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving to you, too. :tea:

sandy
9th October 2015, 03:13
Moose Stew sounds yummy Gaia and pumpkin pie is my favorite :)

I will be travelling to have a family get together and traditional turkey in my Son's home this year. Love to spend time with my granddaughters so will have a few days of lots of fun, laughs, cards and games before returning home. Blessings such as I have I send to one and all!!

I give thanks every day not just Thanksgiving. :)

Gaia
9th October 2015, 13:20
Moose Stew sounds yummy Gaia and pumpkin pie is my favorite :)

I will be travelling to have a family get together and traditional turkey in my Son's home this year. Love to spend time with my granddaughters so will have a few days of lots of fun, laughs, cards and games before returning home. Blessings such as I have I send to one and all!!

I give thanks every day not just Thanksgiving. :)

Have good times Sandy :heart:

seah
9th October 2015, 14:06
Blessings to all:sun:

Inmortal719
9th October 2015, 14:22
Everything sounds wonderful and lovely, I hope you guys have a great time with your families!
Thanks for the history class, I did know about the canadian thanks giving day but I did not know the main story... Thank you for sharing!! hehe
I wish I could taste all of what you talk about! sounds yummy!

WhiteFeather
9th October 2015, 14:45
If I may. Don't mean to rain on this thread. But here's the true story of American Thanksgiving. Words by the Manatakan American Indian Council in Susan Bates.


THE
REAL
STORY OF THANKSGIVING
by Susan Bates

Most of us associate the holiday with happy Pilgrims and Indians sitting down to a big feast. And that did happen - once.

The story began in 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery. They left behind smallpox which virtually wiped out those who had escaped. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.

But as word spread in England about the paradise to be found in the new world, religious zealots called Puritans began arriving by the boat load. Finding no fences around the land, they considered it to be in the public domain. Joined by other British settlers, they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest. But the Pequot Nation had not agreed to the peace treaty Squanto had negotiated and they fought back. The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought.

In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared "A Day Of Thanksgiving" because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered.

Cheered by their "victory", the brave colonists and their Indian allies attacked village after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest were murdered. Boats loaded with a many as 500 slaves regularly left the ports of New England. Bounties were paid for Indian scalps to encourage as many deaths as possible.

Following an especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stamford, Connecticut, the churches announced a second day of "thanksgiving" to celebrate victory over the heathen savages. During the feasting, the hacked off heads of Natives were kicked through the streets like soccer balls. Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape the madness. Their chief was beheaded, and his head impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts -- where it remained on display for 24 years.

The killings became more and more frenzied, with days of thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre. Later Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War -- on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota.

This story doesn't have quite the same fuzzy feelings associated with it as the one where the Indians and Pilgrims are all sitting down together at the big feast. But we need to learn our true history so it won't ever be repeated. Next Thanksgiving, when you gather with your loved ones to Thank God for all your blessings, think about those people who only wanted to live their lives and raise their families. They, also took time out to say "thank you" to Creator for all their blessings.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4nQPI0AV7Q

http://www.manataka.org/page269.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-greener/the-true-story-of-thanksg_b_788436.html

Nenuphar
9th October 2015, 16:06
I really appreciate the initial intention behind this thread. Thank you again, Gaia.